Lost Rebound Kills Jazz

Loose Ball Leads To Jordan Clincher

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz has beaten the Bulls on the backboards in four of the first five games of the NBA Finals, including Game 5.

But when it most desperately needed a rebound Wednesday night, the Jazz let the ball slip away--and in so doing perhaps gave up its best chance to upset the defending champions.

The result was a 90-88 loss to the Bulls at Delta Center, which left the Jazz down 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.

All Utah has to do is sweep the Bulls on their own court. The Jazz is facing that nearly impossible task, in part because it couldn't execute one of the simplest plays in basketball, one that is taught at the lowest levels of the game: the box-out on free throws.

"You simply do not give up offensive rebounds on the free-throw line in the NBA Finals, in a game like this," Utah's Greg Foster said. "I'm not going to lay blame. We're not going to start pointing fingers. But you just don't do that."

The Jazz will get to think about the blown opportunity all day Thursday, when it flies to Chicago for Game 6, set for Friday night.

The play that may haunt Utah came with 46 seconds to go. Michael Jordan had just hit the first of two free throws to tie the game at 85-85.

The exhausted Jordan, who had battled a stomach virus, put up a second shot that barely reached the front of the rim before bouncing into a forest of arms in the lane. Somehow, the ball wound up in Jordan's hands. Seventeen seconds later he gathered a pass from Scottie Pippen and flipped in the three-pointer that buried the Jazz.

"It was a badly shot free throw, and it just came off the rim wrong," Jazz center Greg Ostertag said. "It bounced long and we just didn't get after it."

Think Jordan felt sick? His stomach problems were nothing compared with the queasiness the Jazz felt as the players saw that rebound slip away. If Utah had controlled that loose ball, the Jazz would have had the ball and a shot at the lead in the final minute. The odds would have been with the team that had lost only three times at home this season.

Coaches often talk about rebounding as an "effort" statistic. The Jazz outrebounded the Bulls 45-42 overall, but in the final quarter, when it mattered most, the Bulls had a 12-11 edge. And they plucked four offensive rebounds.

"Down the stretch we got second shots, and that's always a killer for a defense," Bulls coach Phil Jackson said.

"Offensive rebounds killed us," Foster said. "That was all there was to it."

Ostertag led everyone with 15 rebounds, but he would have traded them all for the one on Jordan's missed free throw. For four games, Ostertag had been as invisible as a 7-foot-2 man can be, averaging only three points and 5.3 rebounds a game.

But in Game 5, with Karl Malone in foul trouble, Ostertag had his best game of the series. He scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting and terrorized the Bulls under the boards.

Ostertag's big night wasn't enough, however, and that underscores the Jazz's heavy reliance on Malone and John Stockton, who looked human for a change.

"Coming down in the last two minutes, we made so many mental mistakes," said Shandon Anderson, who returned to the Jazz after missing two games to attend his father's funeral. "Turning the ball over, not blocking out--those things aren't characteristic of our team. But that's a great (Bulls) team. Give them credit too."

The Jazz's shock was apparent as the players trooped off the court, owner Larry Miller at the front of the line. As the last player reached the locker room, the sounds of the Bulls' shouts from down the corridor could be heard.

A sliver of light shone through a crack in Utah's locker room door, but there wasn't a sound from inside.